by Alex Schwartz

- Two high-major programs landed big-time commitments from the class of 2011 in the past few days, as Brandan Kearney opted to stay in-state and go to Michigan State and Tennessee continued the Georgia pipeline and landed Kevin Ware. Both players are a part of the USA Development program and are quality pickups.

- Melsahn Basabe '10 of St. Mark's (MA) committed to Siena yesterday morning, selecting the MAAC power over Drexel and Virginia Commonwealth, just as Northstar Basketball predicted he would. The 6'7 power forward is a great get for Fran McCaffery and Co. Basabe was fantastic at Hoop Group Elite Camp Session I this summer. His accomplishments there included being a Top 20 All-Star, the Most Outstanding Player, the #1 ranked performer by Northstar Basketball,  and also one of the top three performers in the Top 20 game.

- NIA Prep (NJ) recently traveled to Georgia for the Covenant Christian Academy Showcase, and the Garden State program had a great showing. Led by UMES-commit Devon Gibson '10 and Shaq Thomas '11, the Eagles defeated Sound Doctrine Academy (GA) 104-62 and also knocked off Covenant Christian Academy (GA) 93-78. Those schools were respectively ranked as the #3 and #1 prep schools in the Peach State.

- According to reports, Khalil Murphy '10 of Fishburne Military Academy (VA) has committed to San Fransisco. The 6'7 combo forward is doing a post-grad year at Fishburne after being at APEX Academies (NJ) last year.

- If you have a subscription, check out the article that I wrote on Michael Gbinije '11 of Benedictine (VA) for InsideTheU.com, the Miami affiliate of ESPNU. I will also be writing for VUSports.com, the Villanova affiliate of Rivals, and I will be posting links to my articles on these sites.

- Gamal Mohamed '09 of Immaculata (NJ) won the Non-Public A state championship in both his junior and senior years of high school. Now, his college career has started off on a winning note. The sharpshooting guard is a freshman on the Division II Le Moyne team that beat Syracuse 82-79 in the Carrier Dome at SU on Tuesday. Although Mohamed did not see any playing time according to the box score on LeMoyneDolphins.com, he was right in the middle of the post-game picture that can be seen by clicking that link.